Booman Tribune ~ A Progressive Community

Mind Experiment: What if President Obama had to hire his Dem rivals?

by DaveW
Sat Jan 5th, 2008 at 02:02:21 PM EST

Now that the primary tension seems likely to last for months more, maybe it's time for a little recreation. So here's the what-if question for today, while the glow lasts:

What if President Obama decided/had to give all his Dem primary opponents significant roles in his administration? Where would they go? Here's my list:

Dodd -- Attorney General -- civil liberties will be primary.
Edwards -- A new department of Resource Conservation combining Energy, Transportation, and parts of Interior and other agencies
Biden -- Veterans Affairs
Kucinich -- Interior -- he's most likely to stand up to the mining, petroleum, agbiz, timber, and real estate development lobbies.
Gravel -- National Endowment for the Arts -- Gravel is a performance artist. He might enable some really interesting stuff.
Clinton -- Education (except I agree with rightwingers that this Dept. should be shut down.)
Richardson -- State

The experiment indicates that that all the Dems are capable of something useful. Not so much with the other side. In the event that Obama insisted on this "reaching out" nonsense, I could only come up with two possibilities from the GOP Field of Drones:

Paul -- DEA
McCain -- Federal Election Commission

That's what I came up with. How about you?

Mind Experiment: What if President Obama had to hire his Dem rivals? | 3 comments (3 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

I'll Play (none / 0)

Democrats:

Edwards - Justice
Biden - State
Clinton - Health & Human Services (slightly punitave appointment)
Kucinich - Housing & Urban Development (I want the left-most progressive in that spot)
Dodd - Commerce
Richardson - Homeland Security (INS)
Gravel - Labor
Al Gore - fusion of EPA & Energy

Republicans:

McCain - Defense
Huckabee - Interior
Ron Paul - US Trade Representative
Romney - Agriculture (he's intimately familiar with deep piles of fertilizer)
Guliani - Ambassador to Uzbekistan (buhbye Rudi)

The Underground Railroad

by Oscar In Louisville on Tue Jan 8th, 2008 at 12:04:41 AM EST

Re: I'll Play (none / 0)

Huckabee Interior? Where does that come from?

And Al Gore, unfortunately, doesn't count.

Thanks for playing. The other guys here are just no fun.

Bush is "the first President to admit to an impeachable offense." --Former Nixon counsel John Dean

by DaveW on Tue Jan 8th, 2008 at 05:49:19 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Mind Experiment: What if President Obama had t (none / 0)

One of the newest waves within Evangelical Christianity, coupled with a loosening of ties with the GOP, is a renewed focus on environmentalism - stewardship of God's creation. Putting Huckabee over the Interior would facilitate that movement and further alienate Evangelicals from the GOP...

The Underground Railroad

by Oscar In Louisville on Tue Jan 8th, 2008 at 06:12:57 PM EST

Mind Experiment: What if President Obama had to hire his Dem rivals? | 3 comments (3 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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